Merkel: No decision on Greek aid

BERLIN, May 10 (UPI) -- Germany, Europe's largest economy, won't commit more aid for Greece just yet, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying Tuesday she'd need to see the findings of a financial fact-finding mission to Athens before she makes a decision.

"I need to analyze the findings of the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund," which have sent experts to Greece, "before I can make a decision," Merkel told the foreign press corps in Berlin.

Speculating about more aid at this point, she added, "wouldn't help Greece or Europe."

The mission to Greece evaluates the progress of the Greek government's fiscal reforms and austerity measures, designed last year to unlock a $150 billion European bailout package.

Merkel was accused of hesitating too long when Greece first asked for the bailout, with critics saying she exacerbated the crisis by sowing insecurity across financial markets. Now, it seems, Berlin is increasingly dictating the way forward.

Polls indicate that a majority of Germans would oppose bailing out Greece a second time and few say they believe that Berlin will get back its $30 billion contribution -- Europe's largest -- to the bailout package.

Twelve months after the bailout, the Greek economy remains in recession, taxes aren't coming in and the budget deficit towers at 10.5 percent, more than 1 point more than projections. The Greek debt has grown, not diminished, to nearly $490 billion.

Many economists say that the only way out of the crisis is to write off at least part of that debt or swap it for longer-term securities.

Because Merkel knows how important the euro is for Germany's export-driven economic success story, she may even agree to some sort of restructuring -- but likely only in exchange for harsher austerity in Greece.

Meanwhile, a much more radical option was floated this past weekend.

Relying on German government sources, German news magazine Der Spiegel over the weekend reported that Greece may drop the euro, a story that was vehemently denied by Berlin and Athens but sent the currency's values tumbling.

Pressured by reporters Tuesday on her position toward restructuring Greece's debt, Merkel insisted that she would make a decision after the fact-finding mission presents its findings in June.

"I'm the kind of person that draws conclusions after I've seen the results and analyzed them," she said. "Nothing will prevent me from doing that."